By Deniece Smith
After spending a day in the State Capitol in Sacramento this week speaking with legislators about a cause in which I believe (not eliminating the Department of Boating and Waterways), I learned that there are countless numbers of interest groups whose needs are all important. Prioritizing the necessities of each of these groups is an enormous task. From boating safety officers, to nurses, to unionized construction workers, to elderly caregivers and more, every group has an extremely important purpose.
Our current deficit is so high it will take decades to pay it off and as we incur more deficits with a new federal stimulus package, the repayment will take even longer. So as I spoke to different legislators one general theme echoed that is not communicated by news sounds bites. Everyone must take cuts and taxes must be raised. This is a logical “spend less, make more” economic approach.
When understanding that the heart and soul of being a good legislator is having an uncanny ability to argue your point, I got the feeling that if four legislators were given a piece of paper and asked to write down only one suggestion of where they could endure cuts, that three of the four would write “nowhere, all of my causes are too important”. The fourth person, who cooperatively came up with an answer, although through making sacrifice, would then be looked at as weak.
This “all about me” mentality is what rendered useless the initial $700+ billion from Bush’s bailout plan. Coupled with the lack of guidelines for appropriation of stimulus monies, a voracious downward spiral began and will continue until better solutions are found.
I video recorded Assembly Member Sandre Swanson in a press conference on Tuesday saying, “Remember, this recession is consumer driven. If consumers are not spending then we will stay in this downward spiral.” Allowing already overpaid executives of failing firms to reward themselves exorbitant bonuses is not what I believe Assemblyman Swanson has in mind.
The United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes tables which show that approximately thirty-five percent of the average annual consumer unit expenditure goes towards housing. This leads me to understand why a stimulus check of a few hundred dollars was futile in creating a jump in consumer spending. Were thirty-five percent of any stimulus plan directed at the housing consumers, we may begin to see headway.
It seems that a solution to our growing deficit, must include a sincere focus on getting money into the hands of every consumer unit rather than decreasing consumer units by encouraging households to combine in tough times. It seems that rather than spending $2Billion of taxpayer money towards “helping redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes” (which are owned by banks) as written in The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 press summary, (published February 12, 2009) it is time that the executives give back their bonuses and be responsible for maintaining the assets they took from families. (Caution: Reading the Recovery and Reinvestment Act may cause nausea.)
Written accountability of all dollars spent with penalties to abusers seems appropriate. Specific responsibility to quantify how dollars received stimulate consumer spending seems fair. Let it not happen again that a government entity can conclude that federal funding, appropriated for a bridge that is determined to be a “bridge to nowhere”, results in keeping the money even when the bridge is not built. It seems that, as we all understand that there is no easy solution to solving such a huge problem, cooperation and sacrifice should be seen as more than a “peace and love” theory of the naïve.
Deniece is a Realtor for Cashin Company in Los Altos, California. More information about Deniece can be found on her website www.dsoldit.com.
